This volume brings together the two sides of a correspondence, stretching over forty years, between two remarkable Lincolnshire friends, the antiquaries William Stukeley (1687-1765) and Maurice Johnson (1688-1755). The letters begin when the writers were in their twenties and subsequently cover both Johnson’s work as a lawyer and the development of his cherished Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, and Stukeley’s work as a physician, his ordination in 1729, and his eventual return to London in 1747.
This volume brings together the two sides of a correspondence, stretching over forty years, between two remarkable Lincolnshire friends, the antiquaries William Stukeley (1687-1765) and Maurice Johnson (1688-1755). The letters begin when the writers were in their twenties and subsequently cover both Johnson’s work as a lawyer and the development of his cherished Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, and Stukeley’s work as a physician, his ordination in 1729, and his eventual return to London in 1747.
The two friends wrote on a wide range of topics, including current affairs, political scandals, financial disasters like the South Sea Bubble and the threat of Jacobite invasions. The letters reflect cultural life: the founding of the British Museum, operatic performances, the activities of the Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries. They portray life in South Lincolnshire: local elections, concerts, race meetings and plays. Local gossip reveals a parade of characters, marrying for love or money, building houses, succeeding or failing in their careers, encountering alarming accidents.
Naturally, these letters illustrate the lives of the two friends, their careers, their concerns over finance, their marriages and children, their friendships, difficulties with neighbours and all the minutiæ of small-town Lincolnshire life. Both men were keen gardeners and we read of the improvements they made to their houses. Johnson described with pride the splendid view from the tower of his house and the activities of the wild-cat kitten which became his pet.
Above all, the two men shared their passion for the study of antiquity and their enthusiasm for spreading knowledge as widely as possible, particularly through the learned societies founded during this period.
Editor — Diana and Michael Honeybone
Publication Date — 2014
Size — 235 x 155 mm
Language — English
Publisher — A Lincoln Record Society publication published by the Boydell Press an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA
Website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
Printed & bound TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
ISBN 978-0- 901503-98-5
Content Contents, 1 page
List of Illustrations, 2 pages
Acknowledgements, 1 page
Abbreviations, 1 page
Introduction, 49 pages
CatalogueFull 7/4/2016
Editorial Conventions, 5 pages
The Correspondence of William Stukeley and Maurice
Johnson 1714-1754, 198 pages
Additional Letters, 17 pages
Appendix 1 Two Dissertations on Lincolnshire Topics by
William Stukeley, 8 pages
Appendix 2 Chronology of the Letters, 4 pages
Appendix 3 Members of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society
Referred to in the Letters, 14 pages
Appendix 4 Contemporary Tributes to Johnson and
Stukeley, 8 pages
Index of People and Places, 7 pages
Index of Subjects, 3 pages
The two friends wrote on a wide range of topics, including current affairs, political scandals, financial disasters like the South Sea Bubble and the threat of Jacobite invasions. The letters reflect cultural life: the founding of the British Museum, operatic performances, the activities of the Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries. They portray life in South Lincolnshire: local elections, concerts, race meetings and plays. Local gossip reveals a parade of characters, marrying for love or money, building houses, succeeding or failing in their careers, encountering alarming accidents.
Naturally, these letters illustrate the lives of the two friends, their careers, their concerns over finance, their marriages and children, their friendships, difficulties with neighbours and all the minutiæ of small-town Lincolnshire life. Both men were keen gardeners and we read of the improvements they made to their houses. Johnson described with pride the splendid view from the tower of his house and the activities of the wild-cat kitten which became his pet.
Above all, the two men shared their passion for the study of antiquity and their enthusiasm for spreading knowledge as widely as possible, particularly through the learned societies founded during this period.
Editor — Diana and Michael Honeybone
Publication Date — 2014
Size — 235 x 155 mm
Language — English
Publisher — A Lincoln Record Society publication published by the Boydell Press an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA
Website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
Printed & bound TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
ISBN 978-0- 901503-98-5
Content Contents, 1 page
List of Illustrations, 2 pages
Acknowledgements, 1 page
Abbreviations, 1 page
Introduction, 49 pages
CatalogueFull 7/4/2016
Editorial Conventions, 5 pages
The Correspondence of William Stukeley and Maurice
Johnson 1714-1754, 198 pages
Additional Letters, 17 pages
Appendix 1 Two Dissertations on Lincolnshire Topics by
William Stukeley, 8 pages
Appendix 2 Chronology of the Letters, 4 pages
Appendix 3 Members of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society
Referred to in the Letters, 14 pages
Appendix 4 Contemporary Tributes to Johnson and
Stukeley, 8 pages
Index of People and Places, 7 pages
Index of Subjects, 3 pages